Dolly Parton is releasing her new album, Rockstar, on November 17, but don’t expect to see her on the road any time soon. The country icon revealed during a London press conference that she won’t be touring in support of the project, explaining that she prefers to stay closer to home and her husband, Carl Dean.
The press conference had been postponed due to Dean suffering an undisclosed health issue, and while Parton shared that her husband was “fine now,” she does take him into consideration when thinking about her travel plans.
Why Doesn’t Dolly Parton Go On Tour?
“The reason I don’t tour now is because I don’t want to be that far away from home,” she admitted, via the Evening Standard. “You know, we’re getting older my husband and I, and I’ve got a lot of business that I do at home and the movies that I do now we’re doing out of Atlanta, so we’re close to home.”
“I had to cancel [this visit to the UK] once and make it towards the end of the month because my husband was sick at the time,” she continued. “He’s fine now, but you do plan. You make that out of wise choices and I do not plan to tour this album.”
Doesn’t Want To Be Too Far From Her Husband Carl Dean
Parton and Dean met in 1964 on Parton’s first day in Nashville when she was 18 and became engaged two years later. They’ve been married for almost sixty years, and while Dean has surely served as inspiration for his wife’s songs, Parton revealed that her husband “can’t stand” country music and is a huge rock and roll fan.
“We’ve been together 59 years and all my life in the car, in the truck, on the tractor, in the house, he’s always blasting rock and roll music and he loves Led Zeppelin and he loves ‘Stairway To Heaven,’” she shared.
Parton continued, “Years ago, I was doing different covers of rock songs and kind of making them a little bit my own – a little bit country, a little bit bluegrass or whatever. When I said to him that I was gonna do ‘Stairway To Heaven’ he said ‘Oh, don’t do that, that’s a classic. That’s a big mistake’. He never liked that cover – he called it ‘Stairwell to Hell’!”
Carl Dean Is A Big Fan Of Rock Music
The Tennessee native added that as far as her new album goes, her husband’s reaction was the most important to her.
“When I played him this whole album, which I chose songs that he loved and some of my favorites to make this album, I made him sit down and listen to the whole thing,” she said. “You know, he’s kind of a quiet person and he didn’t say anything. I said there’s 30 songs and he said ‘Well, we’ll take an intermission’. So he did, but at the end he said, ‘It’s really good’, just like that.”
“To me, that was like somebody else jumping up and down saying that’s the best thing they’d ever heard. Well, anyway, he was proud of it so that made me feel good,” she continued. “I want to please him, to be honest with you – more than anybody else.”
Parton Previously Shared That She Retired From Full-Scale Touring
Last year, Parton told Pollstar that she had retired from full-scale touring.
“I do not think I will ever tour again, but I do know I’ll do special shows here and there, now and then. Maybe a long weekend of shows or just a few shows at a festival,” she said, adding that she has “no intention of going on a full-blown tour anymore.”
“I’ve done that my whole life,” Parton pointed out, “and it takes so much time and energy.”
Rockstar is Parton’s first rock album and features a slate of high-profile collaborations over its 30 songs including appearances by Sting, Steve Perry, Steven Tyler, Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, P!nk, Brandi Carlile, Debbie Harry, Elton John, Pat Benatar, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Parton’s goddaughter Miley Cyrus and more.
